"Nascent Delirium"

Legacy BG (Golgari) Casual Theme/Gimmick Tokens Tribal Vorthos

HalbrechtHalbrecht

Land (22)

• 4x Ash Barrens
• 4x Dryad Arbor
• 8x Forest
• 2x Swamp
• 4x Woodland Cemetery

Instant (12)

• 4x Arachnogenesis
• 4x Ghastly Demise
• 4x Harrow

Creature (11)

• 2x Ishkanah, Grafwidow
• 3x Jungle Weaver
• 4x Renowned Weaver
• 2x Rotwidow Pack

Sorcery (4)

• 4x Traverse the Ulvenwald

Enchantment (11)

• 3x Assault Formation
• 4x Sinister Concoction
• 4x Vessel of Nascency

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Maybeboard

RULED OUT (18)

• 1x Bone Splinters
• 1x Chromatic Sphere
• 1x Crop Sigil
• 1x Crown of Vigor
• 1x Death Rattle
• 1x Edge of Autumn
• 1x Fork in the Road
• 1x Induce Despair
• 1x Journey of Discovery
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Memorial to Unity
• 1x Primal Growth
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Smallpox
• 1x Subtle Strike
• 1x Toxic Stench
• 1x Unbridled Growth
• 1x Wail of the Nim

Modal (6)

• 1x Collective Brutality
• 1x Evolution Charm
• 1x Golgari Charm
• 1x Grim Discovery
• 1x Midnight Charm
• 1x Seedling Charm

Artifact (3)

• 1x Alchemist's Vial
• 1x Metalspinner's Puzzleknot
• 1x Mishra's Bauble

Removal (-X/-X) (3)

• 1x Dismember
• 1x Drown in Filth
• 1x Foul Renewal

Removal (No regen) (2)

• 1x Putrefy
• 1x Terror

Removal (Probably not) (5)

• 1x Fatal Blow
• 1x Mob
• 1x Murderous Cut
• 1x Pack's Disdain
• 1x Vendetta

Late Game Spells (4)

• 1x Primal Command
• 1x Triumph of the Hordes
• 1x Verdant Confluence
• 1x Wretched Confluence

Ramp (2)

• 1x Gaea's Touch
• 1x Kodama's Reach

Removal (Destroy) (1)

• 1x Severed Strands

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Deck Concept

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My wife wanted a spider deck, so I set out to build her one... only to discover that the tribe doesn't have a lot of support! I have a couple other brews I'm working on, but I'm focusing on this one for now.

This deck is an evolution of my first Delirium-based attempt here: "Bite of Delirium". In that version, Delirium is achieved via self-mill, but in this build I'm trying out cards that want to go to the graveyard on their own.

• Built around: Ishkanah, Grafwidow and Delirium
• Win Condition: Ishkanah's life-drain ability and/or swarming with Assault Formation -fueled spiders
• Restrictions: All creatures must be spiders, and no other spell should be too jarringly off-theme
• Deck needs:
  • Delirium enablers
  • Ways to stall the game and protect myself
  • Card draw, due to having a lot of cheap Delirium enablers
• Meta: Other casual creature tribal decks. (I'm working on a fox deck for my son, a cat deck for my daughter, and a squirrel and a bird deck for myself!)

Delirium considerations

Section not up-to-date

It will be fairly easy to get creatures into the graveyard, between 3x Jungle Weaver and 4x Renowned Weaver . Same with enchantments, between 4x Sinister Concoction and 3x Vessel of Nascency .

For lands, I currently only have Ash Barrens . I have considered running Evolving Wilds along with it to reach a higher number of sac-able lands, but I'm not sure if that's a) good for the mana base and b) even necessary when there's 3 other card types.

There's less each of artifacts, sorceries [currently none of these], and instants [currently 7, actually] simply due to limited card slots. I'm hoping between the current 11 of those + 4 lands, that I can guarantee two other card types besides creatures and enchantments.

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Current Cards

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The core of this deck is the following:

# Creatures
  Renowned Weaver
  Jungle Weaver
  Ishkanah, Grafwidow

# Enchantments
  Assault Formation
  Vessel of Nascency

# Instants
  Arachnogenesis

# Lands
  Ash Barrens

Creatures

Renowned Weaver is amazing in this deck. Perfect turn 1 drop, then turning it into a 1/3 spider is a great play on turn 2 if you have nothing else, and it helps fill the graveyard with the "creature" card type. I want 3x-4x.

Jungle Weaver guarantees a creature card in the graveyard while also helping churn through my library for more important cards. I don't want to draw TOO many of him, so 4x is too many. I think 3x feels about right.

Even though Ishkanah, Grafwidow is legendary, it's actually not always a bad play to cast a second one (and sac one to the legend rule) when Assault Formation is out — 5 mana for 6 power / 6 toughness in 3 tokens isn't terrible. So I want to run 3x-4x of him to ensure I draw him.

Enchantments

I tried the deck without Assault Formation , and it just couldn't hold up nearly as well. This card is a must-have. I don't like that redundant copies can get stuck in your hand (unless I run Sinister Concoction ), but it's too important to run less than 3 copies, I think. I'm unsure if it needs to be a 4-of.

Being in the same set with Delirium, Vessel of Nascency was clearly custom-built for it. This card not only fills the graveyard with itself, but potentially up to 3 other card types, so it can achieve Delirium all by itself. More importantly, it digs into the library for key cards. That said, once Delirium has been achieved, the Vessel isn't quite AS useful, so 4x feels like too many.

Lands

Ash Barrens is definitely better than Evolving Wilds . Like Evolving Wilds, it can go into the graveyard to get the "land" card type in there if need be, but it doesn't HAVE to, and late game can just be a land drop that immediately taps for mana.

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Help Needed

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Please help me tweak the deck with cards from the Maybeboard! Suggestions for cards that aren't on the Maybeboard are also fine.

What NOT to suggest:

Even though at first blush the other spiders / cards that care about the graveyard (like Spider Spawning ) seem good, those cards care about Undergrowth (creatures in the yard), not Delirium, and this deck won't run enough creatures to support that.

Suggestions needed on:

Delirium Enablers

I'm trying to strike a balance between the enablers being efficient (3 or less mana total between putting it onto the battlefield and paying the sac cost) and being useful. For instance, Chromatic Sphere / Star is very efficient (effectively 1 mana to draw a card), but it also doesn't DO much to affect the board state. It belongs more in an "artifact matters" deck. (This is actually the same reason that a seemingly obvious sac artifact like Lotus Petal got ruled out.)

It's also important that as many of the cards in this category as possible can replace themselves, i.e. has an ETB (preferably) or "put into the graveyard" trigger that includes "Draw a card".

Artifacts: Other than Chromatic Sphere, I'm trying out Alchemist's Vial as an early-game means to slow down aggro and a late-game means to clear away blockers. I'm not sure how effective it is, though, and I'm interested in trying Metalspinner's Puzzleknot because it's actual card draw (not only replaces itself, but also draws one extra upon sacrifice).

Enchantments: In initial playtests, Sinister Concoction has worked out well for stalling the early game. The discard also pretty much guarantees a second card type for Delirium. I like it a lot.

Instants & Sorceries: The obvious one is Arachnogenesis , but please suggest any others that might complement this deck. There's a couple in the Maybeboard.

In particular, some ramp / deck thinning might be a good use of these slots.

Harrow was a pretty good ramp spell, getting two card types into the graveyard. And considering you start with 3 untapped lands pre-casting then end up with 2 tapped and 2 untapped lands post-casting, it's essentially 2 mana to put a basic into play UN-tapped, which is a better rate than the baseline for ramp (usually 2 gets a land into play tapped, and it costs 3 to get a land into play untapped).

Fork in the Road is similarly a good enabler, getting two card types into the yard, but since the second land goes to hand and not the battlefield, this card is only guaranteed to be good with Gaea's Touch in play. Otherwise, it merely ensures land drops. If you cast it on a turn when you haven't played a land, it's as good as Harrow.... but no better.

Answers

Removal

I used to think the best option was Sinister Concoction , because it helps achieve Delirium in addition to stalling your opponent. Also, to some extent it acts as a deterrent to the opponent fully developing his board state. In multiplayer, it also can keep opponents focused on each other. Finally, it's a great way to utilize a redundant Assault Formation in your hand.

However, other card possibilities were brought to my attention. In particular, Murderous Cut is also "target creature" with no color restrictions, and it doesn't cost the 1 life or the discard (note that the discard requirement can render Sinister Concoction utterly useless). It also doesn't require double-black, which sometimes makes Concoction impossible to use in a single turn. And as long as I can exile 3 cards with redundant card types from my graveyard (to avoid losing Delirium), it costs the exact same as Concoction, too, and could possibly be 1 less. The main consideration is that Murderous Cut is much worse in the early game (due to fewer Delve targets), whereas Concoction is much worse in the late game (due to less / no cards in hand to discard).

As long as you're not playing against a black deck, then Ghastly Demise is better than both of those.

There's also Drown in Filth , which can help with Delirium and scales well.

Which removal spell seems best overall for this deck?

Other

I keep eyeing modal spells, but haven't playtested any. I've looked through all of the options, and listed the most likely to be useful in the Maybeboard. Please point out any winners!

What other answers might be good to consider?

Gaea's Touch Package?

The reason I call this a package is that it necessitates certain cards in order to make running Gaea's Touch worth it:

• Most of the lands need to be basic Forests, so duals like Woodland Cemetery have to be cut.
• The ramp spells should place lands into hand, not just onto the battlefield, so cards like Harrow and Rampant Growth aren't as good.

Pros:

• It synergizes well with Ash Barrens , which is already a good card for the deck.
• It can be played and sac'ed the same turn without any mana loss (so it can be a FREE ramp spell for one turn), which sometimes helps achieve Delirium in the same turn you want to play Ishkanah.
• You can sac one to play another Gaea's Touch, and since the new Touch is a new card, you can use the "extra Forest" ability a second time in the same turn!
• It can act as a mana "battery" that can be cracked in an emergency to play Arachnogenesis . It also allows you to play Ishkanah and Assault Formation in the same turn when you have only 5 lands.

Cons:

• It isn't guaranteed ramp by itself, and in playtesting, I've definitely had turns when I could play it, but other than allowing me to keep a "mana battery" around for later, it was useless. So it HAS to be paired with ramp spells like Kodama's Reach , meaning it's taking up double slots in the deck for ramp.
• So more simply.... its ceiling is high, but its floor is being a card that does literally nothing on the turn you cast it (and potentially not too much else on later turns).

MAIN QUESTION: Is the package worth it? Or should I free up the slots for other cards?

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Last Updated: 2019-02-25

Top Ranked	Achieved #49 position overall 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	WUR
Legality	This deck is Legacy legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 15 - 0 Rares 10 - 0 Uncommons 23 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.26
Tokens	Enchantment Spider 1/3 G Token, Spider 1/2 G
Folders	Family Tribal Decks